A Lost Letter, Found
by DarlingZombie
Summary: Petunia finds a lost letter addressed to her, from Snape in the basket Harry arived in at number 4, Privet Drive. When she reads it, lost emotions are stirred... oneshot PDSS


In a few hours, Petunia would be leaving the home she had built for her son and husband for the past seventeen years. She was packing up everything she held dearest to her when she came across the basket she had first found Harry in on her doorstep. She was about to push it aside and keep looking for anything she couldn't possibly live without when she saw something she must have missed that fateful night sixteen years ago.

An envelope addressed to her, from Severus Snape. At once, she was filled with memories of the summers they'd spent together, and nearly forgot what she was doing.

Petunia stared at the letter tucked in the basket that had held her nephew. Just sixteen years earlier, the basket was dropped onto the front stoop of her house and she was expected to take care of another child when she could hardly afford to take care of her own. Finally, after years of going unnoticed, Petunia opened the envelope addressed to her. Her eyes watered as she read…

_Dearest Petunia Evens,_

_I truly regret not having spoken to you since we were sixteen, and I am terribly sorry for this burden that is bestowed on you in the most inconvenient of times, but Albus Dumbledore has requested that I write this letter because I knew you from so long ago. Harry Potter's Parents, your sister and James Potter, were killed by the worst of wizards earlier tonight. Now orphaned, Harry needs a new home and Albus has decided that a muggle family, away from the fame that would grow into his name, would be better for Harry. Albus has also agreed to pay for the child and any more expenses that need be paid as encouragement to help raise the child to be a normal boy until the time for him to attend Hogwarts. _

_Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience and for the lack of communication for the last fifteen years._

_Still Your's,_

_Severus Snape._

Tears welled in her eyes. She had barely given Severus a thought since she last saw him, the summer before Lily went off for her last year of school. Every so often she'd miss his kisses or comforts when she needed them, but she knew she could never capture the heart of someone so _perfect_ and hold on for enough time to heal, so she'd given up on Severus that summer and decided to be the kind of woman who would never believe in something so naïve as the love she had once felt for Severus. Now, thirty-two years later, she cries for him.

Petunia stood up, shakily at first, but walked steadily to Vernon's desk. She sat down in the rickety wooden chair, weakened from decades of abuse and more weight than it was built to handle. She shifted the objects on the desk until she found a smooth unused piece of parchment. She picked up a pen and began writing like she never wrote before, talking of everything that had happened over the past thirty-two years. Soon she filled up the page, front and back, and had to look for another piece of parchment and continue writing. She kept writing until she was sure it would take him hours to read and closed the letter asking for a letter in response. Finally, when she was certain it was ready to be sent, she added a post script.

_PS:_

_No matter how much I try to deny it, no matter how much I'm proud of the family I've spent a lifetime building, a piece of my heart still belongs to you, dearest Severus. I still love you._

"Mum! The people are here to take us away!" shouted Dudley from down stairs.

"I'll-"she cleared the last of the tears from her throat. "I'll be down in a minute, I need to finish gatering my things!"

She quickly folded the papers and stuffed them into the only unused envelope she could find, melted some wax onto the seal and stamped it with her old "PE" stamp from before she was married.

She leaned towards the door to her bedroom. "Harry! Could you come here for a minute?"

There was a long pause but soon, a hesitant Harry Potter walked cautiously towards his aunt as if expecting Peter Petigrew to jump out of her skin. When he was certain that nothing of the sort would happen, he stepped closer. "What do you need?"

Petunia had to steady her voice again. "Is there some way that I can be certain that no one will read this but the person I want to read it?" She pointed to the letter. "Some hocus-pocus you could work on it?"

Harry looked surprised, but nodded. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the rather thick looking envelope and muttered a few words of non-sense. "There. Now no one but the intended reader will lay eyes of the envelope's contents."

"Good, good." Petunia looked around the desk again for a stamp then realized that she had no way of getting the letter to Severus. "Uh, Harry…"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia?"

"Would you be able to, uh, deliver, I suppose, this letter to someone? Or see to it that it gets delivered?"

Harry was about to ask why she couldn't just mail it like she did all her other mail, then he realized that it must be to someone of magical background. "Who do you need it delivered to?"

Petunia looked around hesitantly. "Just an old friend. Lily used to know him." She knew that would give Harry more incentive to deliver it. As she waited for his affirmation that he'd deliver it, she realized that he would do nothing until he knew a name. "It's to a boy, well, I suppose he's quite grown up now, isn't he? Well, it's to someone I used to fancy, and I'd like to meet up with him again and have tea or coffee. It's just that I don't know what's happened to him, or where he lives or what he does… come to think of it, I don't even know if he's still alive…"

Harry had never seen this side of his aunt. She was always so sure of herself, so stern in her rules and never questioning what was right or wrong, but now, she seemed to not want to tell him the name of the person who he was to deliver the letter to, almost as if she were afraid to. "Aunt Petunia, I can't deliver this without a name. Just tell me, I promise not to tell anyone else or who this is from, but I need you to tell me."

Petunia sighed. She gathered her courage and sighed again. "His name is Severus Snape. He was very close to me and it would mean a great deal to me if he received this package without anyone else seeing the contents."

Harry looked on. How could she know Snape? The man who killed Dumbledore and helped kill so many others? How could she have been close to him? So many questions whirled inside Harry's head. Finally, he just sighed and took the letter. "I'll see to it that this gets delivered, you have my word, Aunt Petunia."

* * *

Ginny clutched the thick envelope in her hands. It had passed from person to person for a few months now. First Harry had it, then Ron, then her father, then Fred and now her. Her job was to give it to Snape without having it stolen or damaged and that was what she was on her way to do. She wondered, once again what the contents were, but she had once again failed in opening the envelope, it was sealed with some of the strongest magic she had yet to come across.

She neared the painting of Salazar Slitherin, the new entrance to the headmaster's office. She asked the portrait to kindly request the presence of Headmaster Snape and it was granted in a few moments.

"What do you want, you silly girl?" Snape looked pleased as ever to see the Weasley girl.

"Harry Potter said that this was to be delivered directly to you, and to no one else. It has passed between many hands, never once opened or tarnished." she lifted the package to snape.

He grabbed at it and sneered at Ginny. Just as he was about to throw it back in her face, the seal caught his eye. "PE" in elegant script stamped in shimmering green wax.

"You may leave now." and so she did, with not a second glance back.

Snape stepped back into the doorway and opened the envelope. More pages then he could ever remember being mailed to him at one time came out of the package. He looked at the first one.

_Dearest Severus,_

_I've just now found the letter addressed to me, from you in the basket Harry was left in on my front porch. It's been so long, I've so much to tell you…_


End file.
